Jane Elizabeth CullumStudioNature in Paint and Words...some occasional thoughts and musings about art, language and the natural world

'Pluviophile' ...(n) someone who finds joy and peace of mind on rainy days' Well that definitely resonates with me. Those bright sunny days that everyone gets excited about ? Yes, I like them well enough too, but give me the beauty of dark clouds tumbling in over the hills anytime in preference to relentless sunshine; I'd much rather hear rain on the windows than an ice cream van belting out Green Sleeves, and the smell of rain on earth is so much more soul-satisfying than the metallic tang of sun tan oil. I love rain in all it's permutations: the almost- rain of mist rising up from the valleys on an autumn morning: the brief showers in April with their promise of warmth, the crack of thunder announcing the arrival of the no-messing-around gods of storm and lightening strike; the silent falls of snow in the night turning the familiar into the other-worldly. When sunshine appears on these islands it often comes as a gift, an occasional welcome respite from grey skies, but unrelenting light and dazzle which simultaneously flattens and intensifies whatever stands in it's way, is usually too much, too noisy and obvious for enjoyment, like the loud person at the party you can't ignore. Rain is kinder; it softens everything and blurs the hard edges. In the green and the grey of rain and mist the otherworld draws nearer, subtle, numinous and infinitely available.